Qualification Review Team induction day

The Qualification Review Team (QRT) for Computing met today in Jury's Inn in Glasgow. Today was an induction day for the Computing and Social Science QRTs.

I have previously mentioned that QRTs have been created in four subject areas (Business, Computing, Social Science, and Engineering) to explore ways of making HN awards a better fit for articulating with degree courses.

The QRT for Computing has representatives from colleges throughout Scotland (such as City of Glasgow and Orkney colleges), and also representatives of universities (such as Strathclyde University and the Open University).

The main aim of today's induction meeting was to explain the purpose of the project to members and also to get their ideas about how we can improve articulation. We explored four aspects of the current HN awards in Computing:

1. structure
2. content
3. assessment
4. guidance.

It was a very productive meeting. We came up with a lot of ideas. Under structure, it was suggested that we think about how the full 15 credits could be used to facilitate articulation. Under content, there was support for new (optional) units in mathematics and study skills.  Under assessment, it was proposed that we created new integated assessments that combined the assessment for several units, better matching the assessment model used in universities. Under guidance, there was support for new guidance for learners and lecturers about how best to prepare for university.

The next task is for me to shortlist these ideas and come up with a list of enhancements that we can design and implement in the next few months, so that we can pilot these enhancements at the start of session 2013/14.

Contact me if you want more information about this development.